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Topic: Things you should never order in a restaurant (Read 13459 times)

Do not eat from the buffet at 9:30 at night, if you want to sleep restfully.

Alas, if they give you no option but the buffet ("The kitchen is closed,") it's either eat dubious things from trays, or go hungry.

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My cousin's memoir of love and loneliness while raising a child with multiple disabilities will be out on Amazon soon! Know the Night, by Maria Mutch, has been called "full of hope, light, and companionship for surviving the small hours of the night."

That's actually why when you go to a foreign country don't have ice in your drink.

I thought that was because often local water has bacteria that can make visitors sick, while the local population is used to it and can drink it without harm. Often, travelers order bottled water or sodas to avoid this, but ice cubes are usually made with tap water and will still have the bacteria in them.

I agree. And if there is a different standard, there's no reason to assume it would be worse in a different country, or even followed less or more than locally. In fact, in countries where tourism is important, I'd think standards would be high.

On older foods, the thing I remember being told by someone who worked in a grocery store was not to buy their rotisserie chicken.

That's actually why when you go to a foreign country don't have ice in your drink.

I thought that was because often local water has bacteria that can make visitors sick, while the local population is used to it and can drink it without harm. Often, travelers order bottled water or sodas to avoid this, but ice cubes are usually made with tap water and will still have the bacteria in them.

I agree. And if there is a different standard, there's no reason to assume it would be worse in a different country, or even followed less or more than locally. In fact, in countries where tourism is important, I'd think standards would be high.

On older foods, the thing I remember being told by someone who worked in a grocery store was not to buy their rotisserie chicken.

When I went overseas once, you didn't get ice in the water because it wasn't common for ice to be served in the water. You had to specifically ask for ice in the water and it cost more for it. We got a lot of strange looks when a bunch of high school aged students crowded into restaurants and all asked for ice water. Then again, this was over a decade ago in Italy, things may be different elsewhere and may have changed.

I work in a pub and our ice machine gets turned off, drained, cleaned and sanitised at least once a week. All the ice scoops get dishwashered nightly. According to a warning label on the front of the machine, allowing the machines to go too long between cleanings can allow e-coli to build up to harmful levels.

How do the ice machines get e-coli in them in the first place? I have never cleaned my ice maker at home, and my ice smells and tastes fine. There isn't anything growing in there that I can see, either. The water it uses is filtered. Does that make a difference?

I work in a pub and our ice machine gets turned off, drained, cleaned and sanitised at least once a week. All the ice scoops get dishwashered nightly. According to a warning label on the front of the machine, allowing the machines to go too long between cleanings can allow e-coli to build up to harmful levels.

How do the ice machines get e-coli in them in the first place? I have never cleaned my ice maker at home, and my ice smells and tastes fine. There isn't anything growing in there that I can see, either. The water it uses is filtered. Does that make a difference?

Airborne bacteria

Really? I can see that happening if the ice machine is in the middle of a barn or something, but if it's nowhere near stuff like that... I mean, if an ice machine has a hopper where people just scoop the ice out and can actually touch it with their hands, then I can totally see how e coli could get in there. But if it's an enclosed ice machine that dispenses ice and no human hands ever actually touch the ice, then how does e coli get in there?

I work in a pub and our ice machine gets turned off, drained, cleaned and sanitised at least once a week. All the ice scoops get dishwashered nightly. According to a warning label on the front of the machine, allowing the machines to go too long between cleanings can allow e-coli to build up to harmful levels.

How do the ice machines get e-coli in them in the first place? I have never cleaned my ice maker at home, and my ice smells and tastes fine. There isn't anything growing in there that I can see, either. The water it uses is filtered. Does that make a difference?

Airborne bacteria

Really? I can see that happening if the ice machine is in the middle of a barn or something, but if it's nowhere near stuff like that... I mean, if an ice machine has a hopper where people just scoop the ice out and can actually touch it with their hands, then I can totally see how e coli could get in there. But if it's an enclosed ice machine that dispenses ice and no human hands ever actually touch the ice, then how does e coli get in there?

I work in a pub and our ice machine gets turned off, drained, cleaned and sanitised at least once a week. All the ice scoops get dishwashered nightly. According to a warning label on the front of the machine, allowing the machines to go too long between cleanings can allow e-coli to build up to harmful levels.

How do the ice machines get e-coli in them in the first place? I have never cleaned my ice maker at home, and my ice smells and tastes fine. There isn't anything growing in there that I can see, either. The water it uses is filtered. Does that make a difference?

Airborne bacteria

Really? I can see that happening if the ice machine is in the middle of a barn or something, but if it's nowhere near stuff like that... I mean, if an ice machine has a hopper where people just scoop the ice out and can actually touch it with their hands, then I can totally see how e coli could get in there. But if it's an enclosed ice machine that dispenses ice and no human hands ever actually touch the ice, then how does e coli get in there?

If that's the case, then there's nothing in our environment that doesn't contain e coli. It's on the cups we drink from, the utensils we eat with, the napkins we wipe our mouths with. Why worry about the ice machine?

If that's the case, then there's nothing in our environment that doesn't contain e coli. It's on the cups we drink from, the utensils we eat with, the napkins we wipe our mouths with. Why worry about the ice machine?

I think it more of an accumulation problem than anything else -- under a certain amount is "safe", over a certain amount is not.

If I do say so myself, we make great lasagna, chili and goulash. When I see these items on a menu, I always want to try them and compare them to our versions. Sometimes, the restaurant products are better. Sometimes, they're not as good. Often, they're good but different and I can pick up a tip or two. For us, that's part of the fun of eating out.

I don't order the daily special, for example Friday fish fry or Wednesday meat loaf, because the daily special is usually cooked in huge batches ahead of time and sitting under a heat lamp. There's a fried chicken at one restaurant that I love, but it's never up to par when it was the daily special. I'm sure there are places that can keep up with the demand and make each order fresh for one customer at a time, but I haven't found a place yet .

Really? I can see that happening if the ice machine is in the middle of a barn or something, but if it's nowhere near stuff like that... I mean, if an ice machine has a hopper where people just scoop the ice out and can actually touch it with their hands, then I can totally see how e coli could get in there. But if it's an enclosed ice machine that dispenses ice and no human hands ever actually touch the ice, then how does e coli get in there?[/quote

We have a hopper type machine, where ice is dispensed into buckets via a scoop.

Even if the ice machine is fully sealed, I still think I'd be grossed out at the thought of it never being cleaned. There can be all sorts of stuff in water, after all, and if there's a fault or leak somewhere and water is allowed to build up anywhere in the system, it goes rank pretty fast. (I know this from personal experience, but that's a story for the gross out thread.)

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'A troth, by the way, is a small furry creature with fins, the offspring of a trout and a sloth. I often wonder what they saw in each other, but then I suppose the sloth, being upside down, would tend to have a different slant on things.'